#halloween would probably be Nari's favorite holiday can you tell

[cilly-the-writer]

UNLOCKED | AU Scene | “Halloween Unlocked” | 842 words | Shelby, Aria, Lila, Nari, Rowena, & Levina

     Shelby held the icing bag higher as she inspected her work. The black bat and jack-o-lantern designs seemed satisfactory enough. So she continued on. Tapping her foot to the playful parts of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, the sound of piano keys flowing in from another part of the industrial sized building. The steel walls all around them only intensified the song’s bold and dramatic jumps. Shelby thought it was a fun song to listen to while she decorated Halloween cookies.

     Aria did not feel the same way. Some of the creepy, suspenseful parts made her stop and hold her paintbrush still to check her surroundings. She was much closer to the music, sitting at a table at the center of the building. Where large steel support beams blocked out some of the view around her. The bright ceiling lamps suspended almost five stories above them did little to light the space. The safe house’s atmosphere was dark and creepy most days of the year, but even more so on Halloween.

     Aria made a distressed face before she saw Nari and Rowena smile at her from the second floor platforms. She went back to painting pumpkins, doing her best to ignore the inherent eeriness of their abode. All the while Lila played the Fifth Symphony off to the side, lost in the song’s hand movements and exact execution of her fingertips. Her skill had set the mood for their Halloween party quite nicely. 

     In the meanwhile, Nari held a long coiled cord in her hands and got ready to pitch it over the second platform railing.

     “Hey Renna, catch!” Nari said as she threw it.

     Rowena turned to catch it, but it dropped all the way down to the first floor and hit the ground with a thud—before it ever even made it close to her railing. She had completely missed Rowena’s reach.

     “How would I have caught that?”

     Nari sighed.

     “I’ll get it.”

     She made her way down the metal stairwell and brought the cord back up shortly after. Time went by as she and Nari finished stringing up the lights on the second, third, and fourth floor platform railings. It was almost an hour later by the time they hung the lights up on the fifth and sixth floor platforms. That’s when she and Nari paced down to the first floor and went to plug them in.

     The six platforms above them lit up in alternating soft orange and dark purple colors, illuminating the place with an enchanting touch of beauty and mystery. Nari stood back, hands on her hips as she admired their work. But as her eyes settled on the first floor platforms—she spotted all the doors decorated with stick-on bats, pumpkins, skeletons, and more. All except for one door. It was bare steel between all the other heavily decorated ones.

     Nari made a low growl in her throat and scrunched her forehead. Leaving Rowena’s side, she headed back to the second floor platform again; her heavy steps storming against the metal stairs. Just as she reached the bare door and went to knock, Levina swung the door wide open. Levina stood there waiting in impatient anticipation while she wore her full Red Riding Hood costume, with the hood of her cloak down. It seemed that she had expected Nari’s visit after all those noisy steps.

     “What?” Levina demanded to know.

     “Your door. You haven’t decorated your door yet.” Nari said, crossing her arms.

     "Now you want me to decorate my door?" Her tone implied that it was the most ridiculous, burdensome thing Nari had asked of her yet. "You're lucky I even picked out a costume."

     "Oh, come on. You were the first one to put yours on," Nari scowled. "Don't act like you're all doom and gloom."

     "I wouldn't have to if you didn't make everything such a big deal." 

     Nari grimaced, so angry that she was at a loss for words. All she could do was stare back in the heat of her temper, but Levina wasn’t having it. She simply frowned and shut the door on her. The slight surprise caught Nari off guard, but she went to yell just as the door popped back open.

     Levina pressed something onto the front of her door and hung something over it hastily. It was a wood carved pumpkin sign with sparkling black lettering. Showcasing Levina’s name in glitter. Something she must have worked on before Nari had come stomping over to her door.

     “Oh.”

     “Happy now?” Levina raised an impatient brow.

     Nari just turned around and rolled her eyes. She headed off as Levina shut the door again. Levina wasn’t having any of this party nonsense. 

     But as Nari glanced back to her door, she admired the fancy cursive lettering of Levina’s name. The craftsmanship of the sign. The black sparkle of glitter against orange painted wood. It had a simple, yet lovely charm to it. She had to admit it was a nice touch and it more than made up for being the only decoration.